We recently connected with Phil Blattenberger and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Phil, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

When I founded Lost Galleon Films with my business partner, Dan Black, we were both career bartenders who’d decided to venture into film. I’d written a screenplay set during the Vietnam War while finishing my master’s program, and after I graduated we decided to spend the summer producing it.

The thing grew legs overnight – we had thousands of auditions, got investors involved, moved production to Cambodia – and as the concept and prospects grew in scale, so did the time commitment. That was a huge strain. I remember working on budget breakdowns and script edits between mixing up cocktails behind the bar. I knew if I was going to jump into the film business and stay in I’d have to split duties until the film got made, delivered, and distributed and started paying out.

And that’s exactly what I did. I bartended between the shoot schedule, and then when it released I wrote a second one, CONDOR’S NEST, an action/thriller set in 1950s South America during a search for Nazi war criminals. We cast Arnold Vosloo – the villain in The Mummy – and the legendary Michael Ironside, but in the midst of all the excitement I was still behind the bar slinging drinks, aiming for that sweet spot where I could go full time.

It finally happened May 2021. Two months before we were due to film I hung up the bar tool and went out and shot the movie. I haven’t looked back. It landed a nationwide theatrical run through Paramount Pictures and now I’m gearing up to film the next one, WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE, a crime/drama set in Cold War Nevada.

It’s been a seven year run now, this whole crazy adventure, and the first five of it I spent with split focus. If I’d known back then what kind of a struggle it would be – no personal life, freshly divorced, no dating, struggling to find time for my kid, trying to keep a house together, make ends meet, and still create a piece of art in spite of the ordeal – I honestly don’t know if I’d have done it. It’s truly an all-in commitment. But if it was easy everyone would do it, right?

Phil, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Dan Black and I run Lost Galleon Films, a production company built to create feature length movies. We released POINT MAN, a Vietnam War drama, in 2019, landing a worldwide distribution deal that saw the DVD selling everywhere from Walmarts in the U.S.A to night markets in Southeast Asia. It was a huge profile boost for us and really launched our careers!

Our second release was CONDOR’S NEST, starring Arnold Vosloo, Michael Ironside, Jackson Rathbone, and Academy Award nominee Bruce Davison.

They say two’s a coincidence but three’s a trend, right? Well, we’re dialing up our third film and we expect it to really put us on the map. I can’t mention cast yet but it’s gonna be a doozy.

All in all I think this trio of films – and our evolution as professionals that’s gotten us here – is a reflection of our commitment to excellence. You can’t be satisfied with your own work. You’ve got to be your own worst critic. No time for egos, no time for celebrating. Just get better! That’s how we’ve approached it and that’s why I think we’re about to have three movies under our belts.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Man, you really gotta WANT it.

The film industry is built on nepotism. That’s a fact. It’s built on who you know or what kind of money you have access to, and if you don’t have built-in connections with the right producers and actors, or if you weren’t lucky enough to be born into a wealthy area code, your chances of building yourself a meaningful career as a film producer or director making your own movies is damn near impossible.

We recognized that early on, and, having neither the connections nor the capital to start going after big name talent, we decided to build our own table instead of trying to sit at someone else’s. The plan: build a massive, sprawling movie set to demonstrate top-end production value to pull financing and attract actors. The opening scene of CONDOR’S NEST called for a crashed B17 bomber in a French farmstead during World War Two.

So we built a bomber. A full scale, 1:1 replica of an enormous plane. And a full-size stone-clad farmhouse. In a field, in eastern North Carolina.

For two years.

It was one of the most daunting undertakings I’ve ever committed myself to. We didn’t have financing at the time, so I self-funded the build from my bartending gigs, and to save money I slept in a mule barn on the property instead of renting a hotel. Frozen winters, scorching summers. Spider bites, tick bites, existential crises left and right. I cannot describe how difficult it was. But it came together, this big, gorgeous set. And then with it we landed financing, and Arnold Vosloo signed on, and the rest is history.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

They say there’s three different versions of a movie: the one you write, the one you shoot, and the one you end up with in the editing room.

Seeing the story evolve through those different stages is a phenomenally rewarding experience, and I think it’s because you get to see so many talented visionaries breathing life into it. You write it and then you sit around with the production group and hone it to be as clean as possible. And then actors get a hold of it and bring their own layers to your characters and bring it to life truthfully on screen. And then you sit down with your editor and find the beats and the cut points and build the story from all the wonderful moments you mine out of the footage.

It’s really a tremendous process and getting to share in that development with people just as passionate as you are about telling the story is hard to beat!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @pablattenberger

Image Credits
Kevin Putnam